These New Orleans nurses voted to unionize—but say they can’t get a contract without a strike

Some 600 New Orleans nurses joined a national surge in precontract strikes.

On October 25, Tonjanika Webster joined a line of nurses on Canal Street, outside of New Orleans’s University Medical Center. Some, like Webster, wore scrubs. Others, red for their union, National Nurses United. A giant banner reading “UMC Proud” unfurled over the hospital’s facade, while Beyoncé and Taylor Swift echoed out of giant speakers, punctuated by approving honks from drivers. The air was jubilant, like a party, but it was a picket line. It was also Louisiana’s first-ever strike of private-sector nurses.